Sunday, May 29, 2016

It's been a while since I've done any trading, so it was nice to get one going with reader Marc B. recently. We basically did a team for team swap meaning I got a bunch of cool Red Wings cards in exchange for a bunch of Bruins cards. I love these kinds of trades as both parties get something they like and clear out some space taken up by things that don't necessarily fit their specific collecting goals.

This is only part one as I have a lot more cards I want to scan and show off. These are just the first ones I got to and they are some pretty sweet additions to my growing Red Wings collection. If I were to cram them all into one post I would be here for a very long time.

Anyway, up first is one of my favorite cards from the trade, a Chris Osgood Milestones jersey card from 2001-02 Parkhurst. As stated on the front the milestone here was 200 wins for Osgood. The card has a nice sized red jersey piece and just has a nice overall look.

Up next is another Osgood jersey card, this time from 2006-07 Upper Deck. Again another red jersey piece and an overall nice looking card.

In addition to these two, there were several autographs. The first was this Bob Rouse from 1995-96 Be A Player, the set where they couldn't use any team logos.

Then there was this Paul Ysebaert from 1991-92 ProSet.

Next was this Slava Kozlov from 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club.

Then there was this Terry Carkner from 1993-94 Parkurst.

And finally this Jimmy Carson from 1991-92 Parkhurst.

I have to give a huge thanks to Marc on this one. These are some awesome additions to my Wings collection. The Osgood cards help boost the memorabilia portion of the collection, which is severly lacking, and all of the autos are the first I've gotten for each of those players. I'll get to some more great stuff when I post part two here soon.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

My last post for this project didn't provide the usual variety since everything was from the same set. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I've just gotten used to this project having cards come from all over the place. This time I've got a bunch of odds and ends to post. Most of them were sitting around in a pile to be scanned for over a year now, one came from the card show recently and another from a trade.

Up first is the one that I got as part of a trade with Marc B. and it features former Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood. He is pictured with the Islanders, but still has his red gear from Detroit. The weirdest part is the red pants, usually they have just a shell that can cover their existing pants to match the teams colors. Not sure why he wasn't using one of those.

Up next is the one from the card show. Thibault has been featured here before with this setup so I won't get into the details. This card is from 1993-94 Fleer Ultra Wave of the Future. It has a neat effect around the picture to go with the wave part of the set name.

Here's one that I just happened to come across tonight. I was searching for some image of Osgood with the Islanders and then stumbled onto a forum post about mismatched gear. There was a post about Clint Malarchuk and this card from 1989-90 Topps. He is shown with the Sabres, but you can see his red trimmed pads and mask from Washington.

The rest of these were in a stack of cards I was planning on scanning eventually. First was this one 2003-04 Pacific featuring Zac Bierk. He was part of my last post so check that out for details on this mismatch. This is just a better picture of it.

Then there is this card also featuring Bierk from 2000-01 Topps. He is shown with the Lightning and the mismatch isn't as obvious. If you look closely at his mask, it is the same one shown on the card above from his time with the Detroit Vipers of the IHL.

Up next is this one from 2002-03 MVP featuring Fredric Cassivi. He is shown with the Thrashers, but is wearing red and white gear that almost works with the team colors. Its the mask that really throws things off. From what I can tell, this is a result of his time with the Hersey Bears of the American Hockey League.

Then there was this Dan Blackburn from 2001-02 Topps. He is shown playing with the Rangers, but there is an obvious touch of black and copper in his gear that does not go well with the Rangers colors at all. This gear is from his time with Kootenay of the WHL.

Up next is this one from 2001-02 Parkhurst featuring Scott Clemmensen. He is shown the the Devils, but his maroon and gold gear definitely does not go with the red, white and black. After some searching around online, I found out that this is from his time with Boston College. Click here to see a picture of him with this same gear while playing there.

Here's one that I missed last time around when I did a search through my binders of base cards. It is from 2001-02 Victory and features Nikolai Khabibulin with the Lightning. While he has a Tampa themed mask, his pads and gloves are still in Phoenix colors.

To finish things up, we have this one from from 1997-98 Score featuring Byron Dafoe of the Boston Bruins. At first glance this one doesn't seem that obvious, but when you look closely at his gear, there is no yellow to be found. That's because it is from his time in LA. Click here to see him with this exact same setup in LA.

That's it for now. With these ten I am getting closer and closer to 200 cards for this project. This is still my favorite side project and I don't plan on stopping with it anytime soon. There are just so many great cards out there for it, I just need to do a little work to find them.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

If there's one thing this latest card show did, its confirm my love of cards from the 90's. There were just so many cards back then and the focus was more on inserts and parallels than autographs and memorabilia like today.

Up first is one of the crazier die-cut sets from back then. This John Vanbiesbrouck is from 1997-98 Revolution and part of the Return to Sender insert set. It is die-cut in the shape of a stamp and probably has the most corners you'll ever see on a hockey card. The only thing bad about these is tyring to load them into a sleeve.

The second was Andy Moog pictured with the Montreal Canadiens.

The third was Grant Fuhr pictured with the St. Louis Blues.

Then there was this Curtis Joseph from 2001-02 MVP Masked Men. There is just something cool about the obnoxious green background pattern on this one, I just had to have it for my goalie collection. I just wish they were more of a closeup of the masks.

Going back to the 90's this Ice Breakers card of Martin Brodeur is from 1994-95 Pinnacle. I like how they make these guys look like giants with the cropped picture of an ice rink at the bottom. It took me a while to even notice that.

Here's another Brodeur from one of my favorite goalie themed sets of the 90's. This is a Black Ice version of his Stoppers card from 1995-96 Score. One day I'm hoping to build this version and the regular version of the Stoppers set.

This one isn't specifically a goalie set, but I really like the look of this Olaf Kolzig from 2005-06 Upper Deck Hometown Heroes. These cards are cool. They have an image of the player's home city and this one with the Capitol building is perfect since that was the Capitals primary logo at the time.

This UD Canvas card of Pekka Rinne stood out because of the great action shot of him making a great pad save. If only he was wearing Nashville's home yellow jersey. That would've stood out against the white ice a bit better.

This next one is a Braden Holtby Net Cam card from 2012-13 Score. I really like these sets and they are ones I would like to complete someday. This one is coll because you get an interesting look at the inside of the famous Madison Square Garden.

This one I bought just because of the mask. I always thought Vanbiesbrouck's Rangers mask with the bees and the city skyline was cool. I just wish this was more of a closeup shot of the mask. Click here for a better look at it.

This Ray Emery is from 2007-08 Upper Deck The Men Behind the Mask. As far as goalie themed inserts go, this is not of the best, but still fits in my collection of goalie cards so I grabbed it. They should have done something on the front showing him without the mask since that is the name of the set, right?

This Curtis Joseph comes from another one of my favorite goalie sets: In the Cage Net-Fusions from 2000-01 Pacific. I remember pulling one of these as a kid and thinking it was the coolest thing. I have a couple of them now so maybe I can start working on the set.

Here's another goalie themed set I'm a fan of. This Patrick Lalime is from 2002-03 Vanguard Stonewallers. Similar to the Score Stoppers set, this utilizes a brick wall design and is just a nice looking card overall. Gotta love Lalime's masks that always had Marvin the Martian.

Back to the 90's again with this Roaring Twenties insert from 1995-96 Pinnacle. This card is printed on a shiny, textured gold foil and looks awesome in person. It just happened to feature Jim Carey so I grabbed it for my goalie collection.

Last but not least we have this Felix Potvin Last Line of Defense insert from 2001-02 Upper Deck. I love the look of the black and purple on this one. Potvin also had some great looking gear, especially his custom pads that formed a cat when put together.

So that's all of the goalie randomness that I picked up at the show. There are definitely a lot of cool goalie themed sets out there. Maybe I'll pick a few of my favorites and work on completing those in addition to my other projects.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Every time I go to one of the local card shows there is obviously an abundance of Red Wings cards available. Most of the time they are way overpriced, but sometimes you can find some better deals if you look in the right places. These cards all came from either the $12 for 10 box or the quarter box, so they didn't break the bank or anything.

The first one from 2011-12 Donruss Elite is my favorite and features Steve Yzerman hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time back in 1997. I was in 3rd grade when this happened and just really getting into hockey and the Red Wings, so I will always remember that moment.

Up next is another Yzerman, this time a Diamonation insert from 1999-00 Black Diamond. I've always like this set and couldn't pass this one up. I really like the contrast between the background and the red, it makes the picture really pop.

To complete the hat trick of Yzerman's is this Crunch Timers insert from 2001-02 Upper Deck. I had never even seen this set before and the bright font of the numbers really stuck out when I first saw this card in the box.

Here we have another card that scanned like crap. This Fedorov is from 1998-99 SPx. The design of the card is pretty nice, its just kind of hard to see here. One thing I always liked about the older SPx cards was the large foil stamp for the set logo.

Here's another card that didn't scan well, also from SPx. This is from 1998-99 SPx Finite and features Brendan Shanahan. I like the look of the rink logo embedded in the card, it just seems to be a little off center in this case. Still a nice card overall though.

Here's one for my Wings goalie collection. This Curtis Joseph is from 2002-03 Upper Deck Last Line of Defense. CuJo definitely has one of the best Wings masks and you get a nice view of the front of it here. The only bad thing about this card is how about only half of it is used for the main area of the picture.

Here is another SPx set that I remember seeing a lot of as a kid. This is the 1999-00 version and lacks the lager embedded SPx logo from previous years. This is still a nice set though. Its printed on a nice thick card stock and the rainbow foil background looks great.

Last but not least is this Sergei Fedorov from 1995-96 Fleer Metal. It is part of the Heavy Metal set and is yet another card that doesn't want to scan well.

That's it for the Wings stuff I got at the show. This isn't a ton of stuff, but still some really nice additions to the collection. That's what I really like about collecting a team like the Red Wings: there is always going to be something new for me to find. At this point I have no idea how many Wings cards I have. All I know is I can't wait to add more.

Monday, May 23, 2016

In addition to the great stack of Masks cards I was able to grab at the card show, I found some nice stuff for my Hasek collection. These all came from the singles boxes and provide a nice new mix of stuff to add to the binder. Hasek has a ton of cards out there and they are usually easy to find. The price is never that bad either other than the occasional home team markup on his Red Wings cards around here.

The first one is a sweet die-cut card from the good ol' Pacific days. This one comes from the Ornaments set included in 1999-00 Revolution. It is cut in the obvious shape of a Christmas tree and you can see the words Merry Christmas in the rainbow foil background. It even comes with a string attached so you can hang it right on your own tree.

This one is from the Starscape set included with 1999-00 SPx. That seems to be the popular year for these so far. This one definitely makes you think of stars when you look at it. The effect is hard to see in the scan, but it looks great when the light hits it.

Here is another one with a lot of crazy stuff going on in the background. While the scanner picks up some of the effect, it looks so much better in person as it changes when you tilt the card in the light. At least with this one they show him in the white jersey which stands out a bit more from the background.

Hey another one from 1999-00, I'm on a roll with these now. This comes from Upper Deck's flagship set and features the likes of Hasek, Yzerman, Bure, and Roy. This one also has a nice starry them tho the background. There are even "Quantam" versions numbered to 100, too bad this wasn't one of those.

Time for another oldie. This comes from 1997-98 Donruss and is part of the Press Proof parallel set. It has the words "Press Proof" in silver foil along the side and some darker lines fanning out from the team logo. At least they didn't put those lines over top of the picture.

This one is from 2001-02 Vanguard from Pacific. I really like the font and the treatment of the High Voltage text. The large team logo is a nice touch. I just wish they had more of an action shot of Hasek rather than him just watching the play.

This one is pretty basic and comes from the main set of 1994-95 Pinnacle. For whatever reason the gold foil on this one did not scan very well. It looks much better in person. This has a nice shot of Hasek hugging the post, but would look a little better without the players leg you can see in the lower right corner.

Finally something showing Hasek in a Wings jersey. Like I said, there is usually a home town premium on his Wings stuff, so I usually end up with mostly Sabres cards at these types of shows. This was one of the exceptions to the rule so I grabbed it. It comes from 2006-07 MVP and the International Icons set.

Time for another crazy die-cut from Pacific, another one heavy on the starry theme. This one comes from 1997-98 Revolution and the All Star Game insert set. This set shows players actually in their all star game jerseys.

That's it for now, nine cool new cards for my Hasek collection. I'm not even sure how many I have overall now since I never really kept a great count. I'll have to go through and do that here soon. In addition to these, I was able to get some other great goalie cards, a bunch of Red Wings stuff and some other odds and ends from the card show.

Edit: Just noticed that somehow one of the cards I had in the draft
version of this post was deleted. Above is a sweet refractor from
Stadium Club Chrome. Not sure how that happened, I didn't even notice it until I was looking at the folder of scanned cards and this one stuck out. Now I feel kind of dumb for missing it.

Card Boarded (est. 2009)

With this hockey card blog I want to share my personal collection as well as track any new additions. I would also like to share my TTM successes, custom card designs, and my thoughts about this great hobby.